@dudewithsign is a popular Instagram account that shows a tall man in sunglasses holding a cardboard sign in various public places. Except instead of a serious protest message, the sign has a funny aphorism about modern life, like “Who TF is writing Yelp reviews?” or “You can dive without telling anyone.”
The guy of the same name is Seth Phillips, an employee at Jerry Media, a social media marketing agency founded by Elliot Tebele of the popular Instagram meme account @fuckjerry.
Tebele originally came up with the concept of holding a protest sign with a funny phrase, but he only made a few Instagram posts using it. Phillips later revitalized the idea and it became popular: The Instagram account now has 8 million followers and does ads for brands like Wingstop, CVS, Dunkin’, and more in which he displays funny signs related to the brand or product (BuzzFeed once hired Phillips to hold a custom sign at an event).
FJerry and its other affiliated companies have filed at least seven lawsuits since November 2022 against brands that allegedly used Dude With Sign’s image without permission to post memes on their brand’s social media accounts.
Brands served with lawsuits include Avid, a technology company; All Access Dietetics, a training program for dietitians; Itchy, a treatment for psoriasis; BruMate, a thermos company; RQ Insurance and Snack Club. All of these brands posted versions of the Dude With Sign meme on their official Instagram accounts with the photo edited to make it look like Phillips was holding a sign with a message about their respective brands.
